“A man who is full of the love of God is not content with blessing his family only, but thinks about all of the people in the world, anxious to bless the whole human race.” - Joseph Smith

Saturday, June 28, 2014

I've found that out here teaching is my greatest joy...

Hey Mom,

Hope all is going well at home. Sorry for emailing early this time. We have transfers today and because of a few transfers in our zone (including the transfer of one of our zone leaders), our p-day
schedule got switched up a bit today. These past few weeks for us have just been weird. Our activity here has been pretty low, as our plans have fallen through quite a few times. Our numbers for our weekly reports have been low since no one seems to be available when we show up to teach. It's just really weird and kinda discouraging, but I think the World Cup might have something to do with it all. Oh, the accursed World Cup. Haha. And not to scare you or nothing, because I promise I'm okay, but I have been a bit under the weather. Nothing serious, but it's made me bitter because I do want to work, but it gets in the way at the worst of times. We're probably gonna talk to the mission doctor to see what he can give me and I think I'll be back to health in little time.

Zone photo taken last night (6/15)...

Myself with Elder Santana from my zone who got transfered this recent transfer...

....and a Mickey Mouse pancake my

companion made me today...

I've found that out here, teaching is my greatest joy and despite not enjoying all the aspects of serving in this difficult, little, pueblito, I do feel the joy that is found in teaching others the gospel. There really is nothing like it, especially with seeing others progress. This past week, (as well as the past few weeks) I was reading in Alma and had the opportunity to read Alma's conversion story and there was something interesting he said that I really liked. Following his repentence/conversion to the gospel, in verse 24, he says this:

"Yea, and from that time even until now, I have labored without ceasing, that I might bring souls unto repentance; that I might bring them to taste of the exceeding joy of which I did taste; that they might also be born of God, and be filled with the Holy Ghost."

To me, that just really shows the correllation between conversion and the desire to share the gospel with others. I've been able to see that with myself during this short little time I've been on my mission. (Coming up on 3 months, btw.) It really is just something else. I just pray that things will get better here. We need a miracle. Bad. We're getting a bit better with the habbits of the members. There's just something about the Sabbath that folks just don't get here. (And by here, I mean all of Mexico.) Plus, there's just progressing investigators, of which we have only a few of, however, they are promising. We just need a ton more new investigators this week, and progressing too, because we met some this past week, but they're not promising whatsoever. It's really difficult to take a drunk man's word that they want to change, (though, sometimes they're legit in their desire and do change. It's something we've seen...) because most of the time in visiting them when they're a bit more
sober, they're just kinda indecisive and uncommitting, but yeah, that's just where we're at right now. We do have a ray of sunshine with our investigator J, though. He's only got two Sundays to go
till he can get baptized and he's really psyched. We're hoping that following his baptism, we can lay his wife's misconceptions of the church to rest and hopefully start teaching her. Please pray that we
can have a miracle, because we just really need one. Hope you have a wonderful week and I love you tons.

Manuel

Pathetic sandwiches because we needed groceries...

(mine had Hershey's in it, while my companion's had a bit of tuna a canned refried beans)

Goku from Dragon Ball spray painted on a wall...

and a peacock on a roof...

PS I realize I haven't really mentioned much about the food and stuff here, so I'll just talk about some notable ones. So, first, I'll just give my general opinion on stuff. Yucatecan food. Hmm. Well, let's
just say my preference will always be with northern Mexican cuisine. Haha. You have no idea how much I miss pinto beans (Because they eat black beans here and pintos are only found in cans, already refried.) as well as yours and Dad's tacos, enchiladas, meat, sweet mercy, everything. Haha. I wish I'd remember to take food photos, but alas, I always forget. Haha. I had the opportunity to eat a Yucatacan tamale the other day. It's pretty much what I expected. It was big, wrapped in banana leaves as opposed to corn husk, and instead of chicken, it was made from eggs and chaia (sp?) leaves. It was, um, okay, but yeah. Haha. Then they eat a lot of soup here. It doesn't make too much sense
to me because it's already hot and humid here. Haha. So, I'm a firm believer that less is more and when it comes to Yucatecan soups, for them, more is more. Like, there's one soup I've had twice that just too much. There's a bit of broth and then it's loaded with carrots, zucchini, onion, potato, a wholly cooked drumstick (for some reason, they like to throw a whole chicken drumstick in their soups. It makes me miss dad's chicken soup because I realize how much I liked it. Haha.), beans, and a couple pieces of fried banana. I'm probably missing a few things, but that's essentially how it is. Ai yai yai...Haha. However, they do have fried bananas here, and that warms my heart like no other. Then yesterday, I had some interesting enchiladas. They used molé for sauce and it was filled with egg. (Btw, I got to try hard boiled egg here. It was okay.) Well, it was also interesting. It was one of the few things my companion didn't like, and he's cool with pretty much everything. Haha. I felt the same. The food here is just different, and finally since I've actually had molé, I can honestly tell you, I don´t like it. Haha. Anyway, that's my little food report.

Just So You Know...

I am Jessica, Manuel's cousin, he asked me to create this blog for him while he is on his mission. I will update it weekly with letters from him and any other information he wants me to share. I will update his address as needed. Feel free to leave comments, Manuel will not be able to read them until he gets home but I'm sure he will appreciate them.